Day care facility's talks with town raise concern

Friday

Jan 24, 2014 at 2:00 AM

EXETER — The executive director of the Great Bay Kids Company contends they were just being "proactive," by trying to negotiate a deal with Exeter's selectmen to lease town-owned land for a new day-care center off Hampton Road.

Jeff McMenemy

EXETER — The executive director of the Great Bay Kids Company contends they were just being "proactive," by trying to negotiate a deal with Exeter's selectmen to lease town-owned land for a new day-care center off Hampton Road.

"I don't know where the sweetheart deal came from," Executive Director Wendy Munroe said Wednesday about recent comments made at a selectmen's meeting. "We approached the town of Exeter."

Selectmen voted 3-2 to recommend passage of a warrant article that would allow the non-profit to try to "negotiate a long-term lease" with the town to use town-owned property located on Hampton Road, behind the town's tennis courts.

Selectmen Chairman Don Clement, along with Selectmen Dan Chartrand and Matt Quandt voted for the article, while Selectman Frank Ferraro and Julie Gilman voted against it.

The vote occurred after a number of residents — including state Rep. Donna Schlachman, D-Exeter, and Zoning Board of Adjustment Chairman Robert Prior — raised questions about the propriety of the potential deal, which residents will now have a chance to vote on in March.

Schlachman said the warrant article seemed to come out of the blue.

"I was really surprised when I saw this," she said during Tuesday night's selectmen's meeting in Town Offices.

The Democratic state representative urged the board to drop the idea of leasing town-owned land in the Kids Kingdom property, and said there should be a town-wide discussion about what should be done with the land, and it should be "open and transparent."

"It just seems very premature," Schlachman said about the warrant article.

Likewise, Prior said he had some "real serious questions about the process."

Prior noted the company hasn't even begun the planning process that it must go through to win approval of their building plan, and he described the placement of the article on the warrant as "a very rushed process."

"It doesn't make sense to rush things and get ahead of ourselves," Prior said.

Kelly Standen, owner of Appleseeds Day School on Hampton Road in Exeter, said by negotiating with the Great Bay Kids Company, the non-profit is getting a deal that "wasn't available to everyone."

"We just feel it's inherently unfair ... to the other centers on the road," Standen said during Tuesday night's meeting.

But Monroe said they made the effort to reach out to the town.

"I think that the town of Exeter is a really good resource, sometimes all you have to do is go speak to them," Monroe said Wednesday.

The company wants to move into a bigger center because the demand for affordable high-quality day care is so great, Monroe said.

"There is a huge need, we're not trying to take over anybody else's business, we think there's enough children out there for everybody," she said. "We're trying to fill a need."

Mark Paige, chairman of the company's board of directors, said Tuesday they reached out to the town of Exeter because they're on a year-to-year lease with the Exeter school district.

"We could potentially be homeless," Paige said.

The warrant article would only give the company permission to negotiate with the town.

"This is not a sweetheart deal," Paige said.

Clement, the chairman of Exeter's Board of Selectmen, acknowledged Wednesday the board had not discussed the potential deal in public before Tuesday night's meeting.

Great Bay Kids reached out to town officials about a month ago looking for a potential deal because they didn't know how long the school district would renew its lease, Clement said.

"We sat down and listened to them," Clement said.

He said potentially it's a good way for the town to make money while filling a pressing need for more quality day care.

"This is something that's beneficial to a lot of people," Clement said.

But he acknowledged, "It did kind of come out of nowhere."

During Tuesday's meeting, Ferraro objected to the article, saying it gave Great Bay Kids Company a competitive advantage over other day cares.

But Chartrand pushed for the article, noting a new center would provide much needed day care from a company that has a long "history in this town."

But in an interview Wednesday, Standen repeated her assertion that the town is giving Great Bay Kids "a sweetheart deal," on the land that no other business even got a chance to bid on.

"There's never been any indication that any land around the facility was for lease or for sale," Standen said Wednesday. "It seems like someone got inside information."

For someone running a day care, being located right next to the town pool, playing fields and playground is a huge advantage, according to Standen.

"We already are competing against each other, we pretty much have the same customer base," Standen said. "Being right next to the recreation center is definitely a great marketing tool."

Standen and her sister, Katie Rose, met with Town Manager Russ Dean on Monday, who she said told them his kids go to Great Bay Kids Company.

Dean acknowledged Wednesday in an e-mail response to a question that his daughter attends Great Bay Kids Company twice a week and his son used to attend the day care, but no longer does.

Asked if he thought that created a conflict for him or created even the appearance of a conflict, Dean stated in an e-mail, "I have no financial interest in Great Bay Kids. I have nothing to gain personally from their efforts. We pay for our kids to go there like any other parents. The town makes the decision on the lease not me individually, so I do not see a conflict there. It's a matter of town business."

Dean also added in the e-mail that he did not consider mentioning the fact his daughter attends the day care during Tuesday's debate because he didn't think it was relevant to the discussion "at all."

Dean also told them they could have leased the land when they opened their business, but no one ever told them the land was available.

"I don't know how anyone would ever know if that land was available," Standen said.

The sisters opened their business on Hampton Road in Exeter 12 years ago and have 25 employees.

"We kind of feel like we're at a big disadvantage," she said. "We paid for our land, we have a pretty big mortgage and we pay a huge property tax bill. I just paid it."

She feels Great Bay should have to buy their own land and build their building on private property, not town-owned land.

Both sisters grew up in Exeter, but now live in Stratham, and are hopeful the article will be defeated in March.

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